Broken and Empty?
by whencloudscry
Summary: Beck leaves for three years to film a movie in New Zealand. Jade seems broken. Detailing the three years Beck's gone. Takes place in the future. It includes Bade relationship and a strong friendship between the six of them.
1. Before

**AN: Hey guys, this is my first story so the characters may seem off, but I'm working on that. I just got an account even though I've been reading stories here for quite a while now. Anyways, please give me feedback :]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters?  
**

* * *

_Day negative 5_

Beck puts down the phone but the words are still buzzing around in his head.

"You got the part"

"New Zealand"

"2 movies"

"3 years"

"Leave Hollywood"

"In 5 days"

The words keep repeating, again and again. So he does the only logical thing: climb in his bed and go to sleep.

* * *

_Day negative 3_

He's talked to his family. He's talked to his friends. He's talked to his boss at that coffee shop he works, apologizing for the late notice. He's talked to everyone, but her.

* * *

_Day negative 2_

"Marry me."

She glares at him. He's kneeling down on the dirty carpet of his cramped RV. Why was he proposing here and in this way? She knows she isn't a fan of romantic, but she's Jade West, she deserves more than this hasty proposal.

"What the fuck?"

"Please." He's pleading, begging even. If he makes her his, then maybe when he comes back, she won't be gone. He really isn't thinking straight.

"What?"

"I don't want to lose you" He's voice has diminished to a whisper.

"If you don't rudely leave me hanging on the other side of a stupid door again, I won't be leaving anytime soon." That breakup is still a bitter subject, even 5 years later.

"What if _I_ am?" His voice is so soft, she barely hears him.

"You what?"

"New Zealand."

She just stares.

"Tomorrow night."

"Really?"

"I got the part. For that movie. It's a three movie deal."

"How long?" Now her voice is but a whisper. Her breathing is much louder than her voice, but whether that is because she is breathing hard or whispering quietly, no one knows.

"3 years?" He's afraid to answer.

She doesn't say anything. Her face seems to have frozen, heck, her whole body is frozen. She's just a frozen statue, slowly swaying.

"Say something, please?" He pleads.

Her eyes start to water, but she says nothing. She doesn't tell him that her grandmother, the only member of the family besides her brother to support her dreams, passed away. She doesn't tell him all the stress from that death caused her to lose her baby, their baby, the one she just found out she had a week ago but never figured out how to tell him without ruining his dreams of getting the part in that major action film. He beat her to the "I have big news" moment.

* * *

_Day negative 1_

She sits next to him as he drives to the airport. He looks at her fingers, drumming away to a silent song. He smiles when he sees that she is wearing his ring.

"Will you be okay?" He prods.

"Yes"

"You sure?"

"I'm Jade West, I'm always okay." But it oddly sounds like she's trying to convince herself.

He's afraid to say anything more. He doesn't want to expose her lie.

"It's a chance of a lifetime. It'll make you famous. You have to." She continues. Apparently trying to tell herself lies is turning to a habit.

**To be continued...**


	2. Part I

**AN: The TFB&J pictures make me excited for the episode again :], but it still makes me sad that they paid for someone to ask Jade out.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own these people**

_Day 1_

After Beck left, Jade seemed to be the same as she always was, yelling and scowling at everything that moved. But there was something different. Her snaps were no longer biting, sarcastic, or even mischievous. Instead they were empty, they were weary, and they were just plain depressing.

Andre, Cat, Robbie, and Tori had also gone to the airport to say goodbye to Beck. There had been sadness lingering over them as they watched Beck board the plane. Once he was out of sight, Jade turned to glare at the four remaining people. Then she accused them of being sad. There wasn't any reason to be sad she claimed. He was coming back in three years and he promised to call and skype often. Besides, it wasn't like he was that important in their lives anyways. They weren't the ones who talked to Beck every single night before they went to sleep, they weren't the ones living in the apartment Beck stayed in even more than his own RV, they weren't the ones that was secretly hoping for a dramatic marriage proposal even though it would make them seem like a hopeless romantic, which is simply unacceptable, and most of all they weren't the ones that had planned the rest of their lives around Beck. So what right did they have to act like they were sad, devastated even?

Tori protested at Jade's accusations. Of course they cared about Beck, and of course they would be sad that he was leaving; they wouldn't see him for three years either. He was their friend, so they loved him too. Andre gently told Tori to stop talking while Robbie tried to pull her away. Cat, on the other hand, started singing loudly about how much she wanted some sour patch kids, in hopes of distracting Jade. Jade sighed before hollowly telling Cat to shut up. She allowed Cat to drag her to the nearest stand selling candy. But this time instead of acting like an annoyed older sister, Jade was dragged as if she were a lifeless puppet.

Tori had never seen Jade like this, with broken glares and empty insults. She turned to Robbie and Andre next to her, but they could only shrug. They all knew Jade's tendency to mask any pain, but they have never seen her so obviously faking. Usually no one could tell she was just acting unless you knew her very well and were observing her very carefully. But today, anyone with eyes could take a look at her and tell she was broken. How could missing Beck create such a big reaction? When the couple had been separated before, even if it wasn't quite as long as this time, Jade never even showed any sign of needing Beck. What happened this time that made her break as soon as Beck left?

* * *

_Day 5_

By the fifth day, Jade stopped trying to hide her pain. Instead, she starts hiding herself. She stays in her apartment, crying and not letting anyone except Cat in. There is no yelling, in fact there isn't even any talking. They just sit on her bed as Jade sobs.

Cat sits next to her, stroking her back and handing her tissues. Secretly, there are tears rolling down Cat's cheeks too. Unlike Jade, who is practically wailing, Cat's tears are silent. But like Jade, who wants her Beck back, Cat wants her Jade back. She wants her strong, 'nothing touches me,' smirking best friend back. Jade had always been an older sister to Cat, even if Cat was technically older. Ever since they were young, Cat went to Jade every time something bad happened to her. Jade would tell her that her problems were stupid and to suck it up, but Jade would also sit next to Cat as she cried, stroking her back and handing her tissues.

* * *

_Day 18_

Except for Cat, no one has seen Jade for nearly two weeks. Cat stays with Jade almost every minute of every day. Andre, who is producing Cat's first album, gives her as much time off as she needs. Because all he can do for Jade right now is make sure she has Cat to take care of her.

Actually, he also tries to quell Beck's worries. So do Robbie and Tori. Beck keeps calling them, asking if Jade is okay because Jade hasn't once answered her phone or responded to any other method of communication he has tried. And God knows he's tried everything, even sending her a letter through the mail, actual mail, post office mail. They all reply that she's fine. She just decided she needed a little time without hearing his voice to help her adjust. It sounds like bullshit to him, but he doesn't pry further. He does keep calling her though.

Though Jade isn't constantly crying anymore, she still doesn't pick up. According to Cat, she only cries sometimes now. When she isn't, they talk, but never about Beck. Cat tries to convince Jade to sing Broadway show tunes together or make red velvet cupcakes and mock the ugly clothes models wear while the cupcakes are in the oven like they used to, well Jade made fun of the them, Cat just sat and laughed at Jade's comments. But Jade refused, despite Cat's very convincing pleading.

* * *

_Day 25_

Robbie barges through Jade's apartment building, holding a Rex in his hands. Once he arrives in front of Jade's door, he kneels down and successfully picks the lock before crashing into the apartment. He is met with two pairs of eyes staring at him from the couch in front of the TV. One of them is seething with anger while the other is just empty. Neither girl moves though.

"This isn't the Jade West I know. Why aren't you kicking me out right now? Come on, do something. Insult me. Hit me. I even brought Rex. If you don't yell at me for carrying Rex again, I will permanently take Rex out of my attic and bring him back to life. This is your last…" Robbie screams to the girls.

The one with the furious eyes gets up and forces him out. Robbie pretends to put up a fight, but he lets Cat Valentine push him out the door.

During the chaos the two were creating, the girl remaining at the couch shows the first sign of emotion in nearly a month. She looks thoughtful.

**To be continued...**


	3. Part II

******Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.**  


_Day 36_

Something about Robbie's sudden assertiveness knocked some sense into Jade. Jade had never seen Robbie so forceful, in fact no one had. He was the one who sometimes had trouble even ordering lunch without consulting anyone else. But whatever it was, it worked.

Jade is fine now. It's been over a month and she's completely done crying. Everything is fine, because she's Jade West. Nothing touches her, because she's Jade West.

She starts picking up the phone when Beck calls and starts going to work. She goes back to recording music for her first album and returns to the set for a TV show where she plays a major supporting character, and often times the main antagonist, a frenemy of a perfect, all-American girl. It seems oddly familiar.

And when she goes home, she keeps working. She writes scripts, and songs, and even stories. Otherwise, she practices her lines and lyrics.

* * *

_Day 48_

Though she seems to have transformed back into Jade West, as opposed to the crying girl, there was still something missing. She has stopped doing everything unrelated to work. In fact, the only conversations she holds with people are in the few interviews she was forced to do. It concerned everyone around her. Her producer, someone Andre frequently collaborated with, had even called Andre to ask if he could check on Jade to see what was going on with her.

Jade's producer was a great producer, but outside of the realm of music, he was pretty clueless and very oblivious. He cared about Jade, but had a hard time understanding her, actually he had a hard time understanding people in general. The only time he ever realized Jade was angry, and Jade was frequently angry, was when one of the scissors Jade was throwing actually hit him. It required a few stitches.

Andre and the rest of their little group of friends had their worries, and subsequent bizarre theories. But Jade's producer's realization pushes Andre to actually try to talk to Jade about it.

Jade refuses to answer the phone whenever any of them called, so Andre waits outside the set of Jade's show for a couple evenings, hoping to catch Jade. One day he does.

"Jade!"

"What?" Her tone was bitter but it lacked her usual venom.

"Have lunch with me." His tone was demanding.

"Fine. When?"

Andre was not expecting it to be this easy. Jade West fought at everything anyone said. Even if she really wanted to have lunch with him, she would have put up a fight, just enough of a fight that she wouldn't lose her pride but not too much of a fight that he would actually give up, because Jade doesn't let anyone boss her around. When she didn't, Andre realized that something was horribly wrong.

* * *

_Day 51_

The lunch was just Andre and Jade, but it lacked the usual banter. In fact, Jade barely even replied to anything Andre said.

* * *

_Day 60_

Despite the dullness of the lunch, progress was still made. After the lunch, Jade once again started answering her phone, sometimes, and hanging out with the 'gang,' rarely. But it was an improvement from never.

In the beginning of these interactions, she continued to stare blankly and speak minimally though. But she gradually started to say more, and even laughed sometimes. Soon enough, she is practically Jade West again; except that she brushes them off whenever they veer into uncertain territory and mention Beck. And Jade West likes talking about her boyfriend, now fiancé, almost as much as she loves the boy, or was it man now, himself.

* * *

_Day 69_

Beck hasn't heard from Jade in a while, so he calls Cat. Andre, Robbie, and Tori had nothing to say but excuses that were desperately trying to disguise themselves as explanations.

"Is she okay?" He asks.

"Of course she is. She's fine. She tells me she's okay a lot and she doesn't cry anymore. Not anymore. Never." She seems to have adopted Jade's tendency of trying to feed herself lies.

"Then why hasn't she been picking up the phone?"

Cat starts rambling so fast that if Beck weren't used to talking to Cat Valentine, he wouldn't have understood her. "She's probably just so busy. You know the show she's on? They keep giving her more lines and harder situations to act out. Plus, she's such a perfectionist. And her albums coming out soon, remember? There are a couple fast songs that she's dancing to, so she has to learn those. Oh and she's starting to film her music videos. I think they're letting her direct one of them because they read her script. She writes a lot now. I know she's always been good at writing, but she writes A LOT now. Anyways they loved her script so much that they're using it, and letting her to direct it too. She's also working on stuff for her first endorsement. Isn't that great? She's been in commercials before but never…"

"Cat!"

"Whatty?"

"I just want to know. Is. She. Okay?" He holds his breath.

"I don't know. She acts like she's okay. But her eyes are empty. Beck, they're empty. They're so empty, even when she sings." Cat's voice is no longer bubbly.

"Please do me a favor, Cat. Take care of her, for me?"

"No."

"No?" He can hear his voice crack. Cat always loved Jade.

"I'm going to take care of her, for me. I love her too, you know." Cat sounded so determined.

He swallows some tears. "Thank you."

"I'm not doing it for you."

He manages a weak smile. "Okay."

* * *

_Day 72_

A few days later, Cat called Beck. There was something that she hadn't told him and it was bothering her. Robbie told her that she shouldn't tell Beck how Jade was acting because it would hurt Beck. And they wouldn't want to hurt Beck, right? But Cat couldn't help it. There was something about Beck's voice that made her want to say everything.

"She talks about you." Cat doesn't even bother saying hello when Beck picks up the phone.

"What?"

"Jade talks about you." When Cat Valentine got so patient, no one knows.

"What does she say?"

"She acts like you're still here." The hurt in Cat's voice was heartbreaking.

"What do you mean?" He knows very well what she means.

"Like today, I went to visit her on set. When we were having lunch, I asked her if she had plans tonight. I was so surprised when she said yes. The only people she has plans with are, you know, us. Then she told me she was having dinner with you, that you were cooking tonight which is so rare that she can't miss it."

"I'm in New Zealand."

"I know."

"I'm pretty sure I told her that I'm in New Zealand."

"I know."

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe you should try to…" Beck starts, but Cat hangs up once he starts giving suggestions. Was Cat trying to become Jade West?

**To be continued...**


End file.
